Living gently, lovingly, joyously.

Life Changing: Deodorant Recipe

I have now tested a homemade deodorant recipe during regular work days, rushing around stress, training delivery, a full day exploring 80 degree Bordeaux with a backpack, and dancing at a wedding until 3am. It works and is life changing. Something simple, chemical free, cheap, and reliable.

About a month ago, I admitted that the natural deodorants that I had used had either been discontinued in the UK, changed to include gross chemicals, or had stopped working for me. I was basically reapplying with another ‘rescue’ deodorant in the afternoon on most days. Since I had nothing to lose by trying a recipe that didn’t work, I looked online for a few homemade recipes.

My original plan was to try one with what we had on hand (ruling out anything complicated like infusing flowers or ordering and melting beeswax) then try an arrowroot recipe. Arrowroot is meant to be stronger than baking soda recipes so I thought that I might need that.

I made half a batch of this recipe from Becoming Peculiar and accidentally used twice the amount of essential oils. I kept this ratio in my second batch. For a standard batch, this means 10 drops each of tea tree and lavender. I also used the full 4 Tbs of coconut oil.

The first time I used it, I put it on for a work day and…didn’t smell anything by midday or in the evening. I even asked Honey to check. On my third day or so, I used far too much; I was used to using a lot of deodorant before switching to this recipe. Using too much meant that the oil soaked through my shirt once I warmed up quickly due to stress. It washed out fine and I learned my lesson to just spread a thin layer on my skin.

After I raved disbelievingly about the deodorant for a week, Honey started using it and hasn’t looked back. A friend has now tried it and it also did the trick for her!

My Version of the Recipe

Because this is such a precious find, I’m recording our ‘house version’ of this recipe here: